How to Reserve a Backcountry Permit for Glacier National Park

I
wish I had an entire year to explore Glacier National Park's
backcountry. It's an area I highly recommend visiting to get away from
the crowds and experience Glacier in a way not many people get to. While
planning our backpacking trip, I read a LOT of websites and clicked
(and clicked, and clicked, and clicked) on a TON of links and I will
admit I was confused more than once during the process! I'm consolidating all that information in to one post for you
here! So lets go!

First things first. You're going to need to pick
where you want to backpack. Unfortunately there are WAY too many routes
for me to list them out here. My advice is to do some research on your
own and check out the map linked below to figure out where the
backcountry campgrounds are and what the mileage is between each
campground. When you open the map it will be a PDF so you can save it to
your computer too.

So,
figure out how many days you want to hike and how many miles you want
to hike in a day. The three letters in RED show "trailhead entries" and
"trailhead exits." You have to choose an entry and exit from these
points. The black three letters above each triangle (or tent icon) are
campground identifiers - you're going to need these during the
reservation process.

One of the most popular overnight backpacking destinations is to Cracker Lake:

Honestly whatever you do, you can't go wrong. There is NO SUCH THING as a bad view in Glacier National Park!

After you've figure out how many days you'll be there and miles you
want to do in a day and selected your route, you're ready to apply for a
permit. There are two ways you can apply for a permit: an advanced
reservation online or a walk-in permit in the park.

Walk-In Permits:

You
can get walk-in permits the day before or the day of your backpacking
trip. Half of the back country campgrounds are set aside for walk-in
campers but that doesn't mean half of the campgrounds are always
available. In the summer months they can get booked up fast. To get a
walk in permit make sure to arrive EARLY to one of the visitor centers
either the day before (best thing to do) or the day of your trip and
have your information ready to go for the permit (what campgrounds
you're staying at and mileage). You'll have to pay $7 a night per person
for a walk-in permit. No reservation fee will be charged. Visitor
centers in the park do not issue permits after 3:30pm. Also know that
if you plan on hiking more than 16 miles a day you can only apply for a
walk-in permit.

To see a list of campgrounds that are
available click the link below. The dates are listed in green at the top
of the chart and the numbers below reflect how many campgrounds are
available for walk-in permits.

Next up is Advanced Reservations...if you're like us, you will most
likely be booking your permits this way. The first time I did this I was
confused as shit so I'm going to try my hardest to make this simple for
you and add only links you need. Lets go...

Advanced Reservations

Backcountry
sites can be reserved in advance starting March 15 of the year for
groups of 1-8 campers and March 1 for groups of 9-12 campers. There is a
$40 application fee for EACH application you submit (we only submitted
one and that was sufficient for us). It takes about a month to hear back
from the park. You pay the camping fee ($7 a night per person) when you
pick up your permit from a visitor center in the park. They WILL NOT
send you your permits in the mail. If you are traveling to Glacier to
backpack I highly recommend giving yourself a one day buffer so you have
enough time to pick up a permit even if travel plans go awry. Some
things to note about advanced reservations:

If you are unable
to pick up your permit the day before your trip you LOSE your
campground reservations and they become available to the public. THIS
HAPPENED TO US* read the very bottom for our experience.

There
is a limit of 16 miles per day on advance reservations. If you plan to
hike more miles in a day you can only do a walk-in application.

The
$40 application fee covers the $10 administrative fee + $30 fulfilled
trip request fee for EACH application you submit. If backcountry
personnel are unable to award an advance reservation itinerary based
upon the itinerary you submit, the $30 fulfilled trip request fee will
be refunded. The $10 administrative fee is never refunded.

Okay,
before this next step you're going to need to know your group size, how
many days you're backpacking for, how many miles you're doing in a day
(must be less than 16), what campgrounds you want to stay at (make note
of the three letter campground identifiers - you're going to need these
during the reservation process) and the trailheads you're using to begin
and end your trip at. I also need to add that...

You
cannot advance to another campground on your reservation a day early.
Read: if you hike faster than you think you will you MUST stop at the
campground you booked for that night. You will encounter anywhere from
1-3 rangers while in the backcountry and they will all check your
permits, your IDs and ask you questions about your trip. Stick to your
itinerary and do not deviate from your plans unless you want to be
fined.

Okay, so you have all your info. The next step is to go to www.pay.gov and
create an account. This is where you will be submitting your
applications and paying your reservation fees. I am linking how to make a
reservation below:

Note:
if you try to access this form before March 15 it will tell you "We are
sorry, this form is currently closed. It will reopen at Mar 15 2018
10:00 AM....." If you hit continue it will take you to
the form and you can begin to fill it out. It will save all your
information but you will not be able to submit it until March 15.

While
filling out the form they will have a link to the backcountry
campground map if you forget the three letter identifier for your
campground as well as the trailheads. You can save as many forms as you
need to and access them whenever you need on the website. They also let
you submit multiple itineraries which is nice because it increases your
chances of getting a permit.

Good luck!

**Our
experience: I made the mistake of planning our first day on the trail
on the same day we were flying into Montana. Our flights were delayed
and the rental car company screwed up our reservations so we were
severely delayed and didn't get into GNP until around 9:00pm. THANKFULLY
I reserved a campground at Saint Mary's Lake just in case this happened
(literally cannot thank myself enough for doing this). Because we were
unable to pick up our permits for our backpacking trip that day (you can
pick them up 24 hours before the day you are scheduled to start) our
campground reservations were released to the public. There was nothing
we could do that night except set up camp and get some sleep. We woke up
EARLY the next morning and got to the visitors center the second they
opened. I knew our itinerary by heart (I recommend writing it down
somewhere) and was able to re-book everything at the visitors center.
However, I had to make a few adjustments since we had one less night. I
believe we were able to re-secure our permit because the itinerary I
planned was not a super popular area of the backcountry. If we had had a
permit for Cracker Lake, I'm sure we would have lost it immediately.